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September 18, 2006

CW Journal features the science of history in Fall 2006 edition

The autumn edition of Colonial Williamsburg, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s popular history journal, examines how 21st-century technology is helping uncover the remains of the 18th century. In the article, “The Technology of History: Modern Science is Helping to Solve the Puzzles of the Past” by Michael J. Lombardi, new tools are available to historians and archaeologists to study sites and samples.

“Whether it’s paleoethnobotany, archaeophysics, dendrochronology or another exotic specialty, science and technology have opened new doors to the study of long ago,” Lombardi writes. “They challenge historians and archaeologists to alter the way they search for evidence, to say what constitutes evidence and decide how to evaluate that evidence.”

For the cover story, Ed Crews profiles the soldier who received the nickname, the Hercules of the American Revolution, Peter Francisco. The private from Buckingham County, Virginia, fought in six major battles and sustained as many injuries. “Francisco was as big, in his day, as his reputation, and by some accounts as strong. He stood more than six feet and weighed more than 200 pounds, and as his fame grew, so did accounts of his size and power—up to six-six, 260, and buff enough to carry off a cannon on his back or to tuck a calf under one arm, a cow under the other, and walk them out of a bog.”

Elsewhere in the issue can be found:

“Scenes from The Revolutionary City”—Former NBC News correspondent Lloyd Dobyns details the Revolutionary City, new programming that kicked off in Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area in March;

“After Yorktown”—Chris Geist, professor emeritus at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University, examines the impact of the American Revolution in Britain;

“Roman Catholicism in the American Colonies”—Robert Doares, an interpreter in Colonial Williamsburg’s Interpretive Training Department, studies the anti-Catholic bias in the 18th-century colonial capital of Virginia; and

“Personable Pooches”—Colonial Williamsburg’s retired vice president for Collections and Museums and Carlisle H. Humelsine Curator Graham Hood discusses a rare set of 18th-century buttons that one dog owner had made to honor the canine members of his family.

Colonial Williamsburg, the Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, is published six times a year by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. The journal is a benefit to donors who contribute $35 a year or more and $8 is reserved for the subscription.

For more information or reservations, call toll-free 1-800-HISTORY or visit Colonial Williamsburg on the Internet at www.ColonialWilliamsburg.com.